The tracks created for the Stubnitz and the wider album explore the dark legacy of the East German navy (Volksmarine) and fishing fleets, which were decimated following German re-unification, with social and political consequences that are still unfolding today. The album presents a ghostly glimpse into the lost world of the Cold War at sea and the lives of those engaged on its frontlines.
Sz.Berlin (Schmerzzentrum Berlin) is a London-based cultural intervention force formed in 2007. It draws inspiration from German and European historical, cultural & ideological sources. It takes particular inspiration from the hidden history of electronic music research in the DDR, as well as from East German design culture and the Warsaw Pact. More recently, it has engaged with Irish history and continues to develop its sound and aesthetic.
Sz. Berlin has performed at several London nights including Ill FM At The Others, Klub V.E.B. and Noise=Noise. It has also performed on location in Bosnia and Ireland.
In May 2011 the group participated in the Konjic Biennale with installations and a performance in the former Yugoslav command bunker. See the Biennale website for further information on the bunker and the installations page for more details of the Sz. Berlin works featured. Following a pause Sz. Berlin re-emerged in 2013 with a London live action and a new video. Sz. Berlin also commissioned a thematic compilation based on the history of East Germany and this was issued in October 2014 by the label VEB89.
Studio work continued in 2015, resulting in the release of a new digital track. Following a period of intensive historical research and a/v production and editing Sz. Berlin re-emerged in summer 2016 to participate in 2nd NSK State Folk Art Biennale in Ireland.
In October 2016 it performed a live soundtrack to the video work at London’s Horse Hospital. In 2017 it performed for the first time at London’s Iklectik, and aboard the former East German fishing ship M.S. Stubnitz in Hamburg for the Primal Uproar festival. This and the 2018 album (Windstärke zwolf) were inspired by the history of the DDR fishing fleet and navy. The album also featured a remix by Autopsia of Sz. Berlin’s version of the East German national anthem. In January 2019 a new A/V work Towards a concrete dys(u)topia premiered at Iklectik. This explored the ambivalent status of concrete and Brutalism in the public imagination. It was performed again online in May 2020.
In January 2022 it released the a/v work The Tower, a visual soundtrack to the cdx-foto exhibition The Tower. This was followed in May 2023 by the A/V live performance RZZ-22 at R.o.R. Festival, Nova Gorica, dedicated to the decaying port cranes of Rijeka. In October, the performance SZB-22 took place at the 2nd Bruital Berlin Uproar event. This was based on the dark history of Tempelhof Airport. TEV-22, a video filmed in a ruined power station and produced in collaboration with filmmaker Nik Panic was shown at Burren College of Art in November 2022, accompanying the cdx-foto exhibition Autarcheum. In December 2022, the first Sz. Berlin solo exhibition, Dispozione Schematica, RZR-22 opened at DKC Lamparna, Labin, Croatia. The exhibition presented salvaged technical locomotive blueprints and new images and video derived from them.
In May 2023, Sz. Berlin took part in the R.o.R. artistic residency organised by the innovative Slovene arts collective BridA and became the first artist to use Studio 136 in Šempas. This residency led to the its second solo exhibition, Sprava in sinteza, which opened at the studio in June 2023. It radically reconfigured the architectural history of the city of Nova Gorica via digital prints and the 10 minute film Čista protislovnost (Pure Contradiction). The opening was followed by the 30 minute A/V performance Disonantna sinteza (Dissonant Synthesis). New versions of the performance were also presented at the Nova Gorica City Hall for the Slovene Day of Architects (in October 2023) and Iklectik in London (November 2023). In November 2023, Sz. Berlin participated in the group A/V exhibition T.F.I.D. (The Future is Dead), which has so far been presented in New York, China and Poland.
In spring 2024, the A/V collaborative project Sz. Berlin ± Panic released its first two short films and soundtracks - Separacija [PLM-22] and Degeneracija [TEV-24], the start of a series of explorations of ruined sites in Croatia.
For press, performance or installation enquiries please contact sz.berlin[at]ymail.com
Sz. Berlin 